10月6日的GDC在线谈话联线迪士尼所属社交游戏开发公司Playdom创意设计副总裁Raph Koster。此次谈话中，Koster向那些想要进入社交游戏领域的传统核心游戏开发商提出了几点建议。

Playdom

Koster指出，从开发大投资游戏转向社交游戏，核心游戏开发公司首先要调整好心态。以下是Koster对调整心态提出的一些建议：

1，单机游戏的商机较小

首先，Koster出示了一张销量破百万的PS3游戏列表，其中包括了《神秘海域 2》和《战神 3》。以此说明制作阵容强大、设计精湛的大型单机游戏拥有庞大的用户基础。然后，他展示了一张用户数破百万的社交游戏列表，单在8月破百万的社交游戏就有219款。与之相比，破百万的单机游戏显得寥寥无几。

2，目标用户群

Koster认为，Facebook网站上的社交游戏并不是人们在进行“传统”Facebook网站活动时的附加消遣。事实上，人们花在社交游戏上的时间远远不止5分钟，而且社交游戏也并不是低智商游戏。现在，很多社交游戏玩家每天花几个小时玩社交游戏，其中35%的玩家还愿意为此购买虚拟商品。所以，Koster指出现在的游戏市场已经不再局限于那些传统核心游戏的玩家，“玩家群体已经从《生活大爆炸》扩大到了《与星共舞》”。

3，获取有用的游戏反馈

Koster强调分析反馈信息和及时对社交游戏进行必要调整十分重要。以自己为例，Koster指出由于自己的长期传统核心游戏设计背景（他曾开发游戏《星球大战星系》），Koster经常发现游戏反馈信息分析结果与自己的直觉经验想法大相径庭。

通过及时的信息分析，优秀的游戏开发公司不再需要等待多年的开发研究过程，社交游戏开发商们基本上可以现学现卖。即便最终失败了，马上知道结果也好过挣扎多年后才知道。因此，Koster建议游戏开发商要在还没有启动项目时就着手分析处理反馈信息。

同时，Koster还提供了一个重要的及时反馈资源UserTesting.com。在该网站上，游戏开发商只需支付39美元就可以得到玩家对自己游戏或网站的体验视频和一份详细的体验报告。

4，保持力重要吗？

Koster指出，对于所有游戏开发商，病毒式传播、保持力和ARPU（平均用户营收）是3个十分重要的信息。但他也表示，从前被业内人士津津乐道的病毒式传播现在已经不再是社交游戏生存的唯一途径了。

5，专业化并不好

另外，Koster建议传统核心游戏开发商要抛弃那种“专业化才好”的理念。社交游戏公司在组织上与核心游戏公司十分不同。以帽子为例，在社交游戏开发中，游戏设计师要身兼产品零售商，要知道如何让客户买下更多的帽子。

6，想法要用实践来证明

并不是任何新功能都能令游戏变得更有趣，这一点这在核心游戏范畴内很难证明。但在社交游戏中，信息反馈可以马上告诉开发商新功能的实际效用。Koster回忆起当初Playdom在某款游戏中加入了“成就”功能，当时许多开发老手很肯定这一功能的效用。然而实际分析显示：“成就”主要效果是少量减少了玩家对游戏的评论。

对此，传统的游戏开发商可能会认为Playdom将移除这个功能，因为他们认为对游戏无益的元素就没有存在的必要。但实际上，Playdom的“成就”系统现在已经更新到第七版。

Koster说，“一开始我以为能说中90%，但实际上成功率只有10%……现在我们进步很多，一般试换3次就可以达到效果。”因此，他鼓励游戏开发商要意识到“每个玩家都值得研究”。有时Koster自己都不认为烦扰玩家进行测试和反馈有实际意义，但事实上它的确有益于拓宽用户基础。

Raph Koster

7，每个员工都要清楚现状和目标

在一个开发团队中，重要的反馈信息不需要隐瞒，相反地，将它们大张旗鼓地贴在墙上，激发团队向其目标买进。但同时也要注意，反馈信息并不是万能药，它们只是激励员工的一种方法。

同时，Koster指出不要盲目听信外界那些关于社交游戏泡沫即将爆破的说法。尽管近来许多FarmVille等热门社交游戏的用户数遭受2位数百分比的下降，这并不意味着社交游戏市场结束了。

事实上，在主流社交游戏的用户数下降的同时，社交游戏领域涌现出很多小型游戏开发商，其中有些取得了不错的成绩。

8，信息通告并不是垃圾邮件

Facebook的信息通告一直以来受到了很多社交游戏贬低者的恶评，对此Koster认为“墙面张贴邮件对于游戏玩家而言并不是垃圾邮件”。

Koster认为这些发送的信息通告实质上和给亲朋好友赠送生日贺卡并没有区别，其中也融入了玩家的情感和社交元素。“病毒式传播”是很多人对其实质的恶解。

9，开发的既是游戏也是生意

Koster提出，不了解金钱的人无法成为一个优秀的设计师，游戏设计师必须随时处于备战状态。

在社交游戏中，各种细节变化，哪怕是链接的位置或邀请函的颜色都将影响玩家的多寡。因此游戏开发商们必须无时不刻地将游戏开发作为事业来看待。

10，尝试提升游戏平台

最后，Koster鼓励开发商尝试使用一些提升游戏领域的工具或科技。他建议使用类似Applifier的跨产品营销工具，想方设法宣传自己。（本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

At a GDC Online talk in Austin today, Raph Koster, VP of creative design at Disney-owned social game developer Playdom (Sorority Life), challenged myths about the social game audience and gave triple-A developers tips on making the leap from big-budget packaged games to social game development.

“The biggest thing involved in making this shift, making this leap is mental adjustments,” Koster said, adding that to go into social gaming, you have to be more than just a “bad-ass game developer.”

Filling in at the session for scheduled speaker and co-founder of Playdom subsidiary Metaplace John Donham, Koster offered a series of tips to help with those important mental adjustments:

Almost All Console Games Are Niche

Koster showed a list of PlayStation 3 games that have sold over 1 million units. With games like Uncharted 2 and God of War 3 on the list, it represented a powerful lineup of well-made games that reached a large audience.

Then he showed a list of social games that had over 1 million users – 219 games for the month of August alone. “That makes console gaming look like a very small marble in the toybox,” said Koster.

While Koster conceded, “it’s undeniable that triple-A titles make piles and piles of money… [with social games], monetization is on a whole different kind of scale.”

Audience

It’s not true that people just play Facebook games on the side while doing “primary” Facebook activities like uploading pictures or checking on friends, Koster said. He also said it’s inaccurate to say that people only play Facebook games for five minutes, or that social game players are unintelligent.

People play these games for hours, he said, adding that 35 percent of the audience will purchase virtual goods at some point. “These people aren’t casual. … [but] this isn’t just a plain old hardcore gamer market,” said Koster. “These are the people that watch Dancing with the Stars, not [The] Big Bang Theory.” And they’re willing to pay for the experience, he said.

Get Independent Feedback

Koster stressed the importance of tracking metrics and making necessary changes to a social game as rapidly as possible. He said the process of using metrics instead of drawing on his own experience and supposed know-how was initially counterintuitive for him, given his more traditional, core-focused design background (he was previously creator on Star Wars Galaxies).

But by taking advantage of access to metrics, triple-A developers moving into social games no longer have to wait after years of development “to find out if something works,” Koster said. Social game makers can find out almost instantly.

It’s better to “have your dream crushed after 48 hours rather than five years,” said Koster. “…Establish a process that gets you feedback at every stage, including before you even start.”

The creative director also pointed to an important resource for fast play-testing and feedback, UserTesting.com. There, developers can spend $39 for a video of a visitor using the developer’s social game or website, and also receive a written summary describing their experience with the product.

Does Retention Matter?

Koster told developers their “key metrics are virality, retention and ARPU [average revenue per user].” Without those elements, “your business goes away” he said.

He added that despite the industry’s constant emphasis on social games’ virality, “It’s not the be-all end-all anymore.”

“…What makes the game viral has to be inside the core loop of the game mechanic,” said Koster. But he said today, virality is more about drastically reducing user acquisition costs and, in his opinion, “ARPU is the knob that’s easiest to turn.”

Specialization Is Bad

Another adjustment Koster said traditional core game developers need to make is to throw out the concept that specialization is good. A social game company needs to be structured considerably different from a core game developer, he argued.

“Think of roles as hats,” said Koster.” You have to structure your team in such a way that all of these hats are worn by [a lot less] people.”

Koster said that in social game development a “bad-ass” level designer isn’t as valuable as a level designer who was also a retail manager that knows about selling products at a store, for example. “What you need is people who can wear more than one hat.”

I Don’t Care What You Think… Prove It

“Not every feature makes your game better,” Koster said. But with core games, it can be extremely difficult to prove that. Again, metrics can instantly show the effect of a new feature in a social game.

Koster recalls a situation where Playdom put achievements in a game, for example, and the veteran team was confident that it knew how to implement them. But the metrics revealed a surprise: “[Achievements'] chief effect was that people recommended the game slightly less,” said Koster.

In triple-A game development, Playdom would’ve left the feature as it was, because they’d have no idea that it wasn’t good for the game. Now, instead, Playdom is on version seven of the achievements system, Koster pointed out.

“When we started I thought we’d be right 90 percent of the time,” said Koster. But in reality, “our hit rate was 10 percent. … We’re better now -– it just takes us three tries till we get something to work.”

Koster also encouraged developers to realize that “every user is a place to learn, and there are always more of them.” He said it was hard to convince himself that it’s worth annoying some players for the sake of testing and learning, but in the end it is to benefit the wider base and helps gain more users.

Everyone Has To Know The Metrics And What Their Goal Is

And those highly-important metrics should not be kept a secret from the team. Instead, project them on the wall, and use certain metrics to motivate the team and drive them to goals. “What it does is focus the team very, very powerfully,” said Koster.

However, “metrics are not a cure-all,” he warned. “They are for optimizing. … Metrics are awesome, but you have to be just as creative, just as awesome a designer as you ever have been.”

There Are New Winners Today

Koster also said not to listen to detractors who say that the social game bubble is destined to soon burst. While double-digit percentage user base declines for leading games like FarmVille make headlines, “it is not true that this market is over and done with. … The business challenges have just shifted,” said Koster.

Aside from declines of major social games, the smaller developers are coming up and making significant strides in the category, he said.

It’s Not Spam

Notifications on Facebook are one of the more contentious topics between social game detractors and proponents. “Wall post spam is not spam to people who are playing the game,” Koster argued.

Koster said that the notion behind sending those notifications about a social game is the same thing that drives people to send birthday cards to friends and relatives. He argued that there’s real emotion and social aspects that go into notifications. “‘Virality’ is in many ways a terrible name for what this really is. … It’s denigrating to call that ‘spam,’” Koster said.

It’s As Much Of A Business As It Is A Game

“You can no longer be a designer that doesn’t understand money,” said Koster. “…You have to be constantly on your toes.”

With social games, tiny changes, such as a link placement or the color of an invite could boost numbers or drag them down. “You have to constantly treat this like a living business at every moment.”

Try And Level The Playing Field

Finally, Koster encouraged the use of tools and techniques that can level the playing field with competitors. He suggested using cross-product marketing networks like Applifier and leveraging other games in your studio to bring them to other products. “Find other ways to broadcast your message,” he said. （Source：Gamasutra）